US Veterans can help fellow Veterans by rating care at VA Hospitals and Outpatient Centers

Where are the best veterans hospitals? Each and every day veterans are accessing care at the hundreds of hospitals and outpatient centers across the nation. It is important that everyone know how you are treated, especially other veterans who will be seeking care.

That's why is why we have included Veteran Hospitals and Veteran Outpatient Clinics in our health care directory.

Please take a moment and share your experience on WhereToFindCare.com for a VA hospital or VA Outpatient Center. How you are treated is a concern to all of us. If you know a veteran who has received services in a VA hospital or VA Outpatient Center - help them out by asking them to share their experience on WhereToFindCare.com.

Veterans: Beware of New Phone Scam

The VA is warning veterans to beware of a new phone scam.

Don't give your credit card information over the phone to callers who claim to be updating VA prescription information.

VA does not call veterans asking to disclose personal financial information over the phone, and VA has not changed its processes for dispensing prescription medicines.

"I have received many reports that veterans are being contacted by 'Patient Care Group' representing that they are helping administer VA prescriptions and stating that the pharmacy billing procedures have changed and they are therefore requesting veteran credit card numbers for prescription payments in advance of filling their prescriptions," states Kevin Secor, a Veterans Service Organizations liaison with the Office of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. "This is false."

Anyone who receives a call from someone who claims to work for the Patient Care Group and asks for a credit card number should simply hang up.

Source: AirForceTimes

Helpful Tools:
Find a VA Hospital
Find a VA Outpatient Clinic

Other Stories of Interest:
Website Connects Soldiers to Their Families
40% of Returning Veterans need Mental Health Care
Relaxation of income requirements will yield coverage for more veterans

Health Care Reform Won't Impact VA or TRICARE

For those receiving medical care through TRICARE or the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Obama wants you to know: Your benefits are safe.

Eligibility for health care under VA or TRICARE "will not be affected by our efforts at broader health-care reform" Obama told military reporters at the White House on August 4.

"I want to make sure that message gets out to our veterans," the president said. "I think it's very important to get the message out: If you are in the VA system and are happy with your care, great. We have no intention of changing your eligibility."

To learn if you are a eligible for veteran's benefits or TRICARE: please visit the VA website: Health Care Eligibility and Enrollment for Veterans.

Use WhereToFindCare.com to find a Veterans Hospital or Veteran Outpatient Clinic near you.

Source: US Department of Defense Military Health System

Website Connects Soldiers to Their Families

In efforts to support military families with young children and help them stay connected, the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE) and Sesame Street Workshop recently teamed up to launch a new website called Sesame Street Family Connections.

The website is a bilingual(English/Spanish) child centered online space where both children and adults can interact and stay connected. It is a private online place to keep military families connected across the globe.

With the help of their favorite Sesame Street friends, family members can compose encouraging messages to each other, share artwork and videos, and upload photos.

The website also provides helpful resources for military families with young children experiencing the effects of deployments, when a parent returns home changed due to a combat related injury and helping children cope with the death of a loved one.

Source: The Military Health System Blog

40% of Returning Veterans need Mental Health Care

A new study shows that more than 40% of US soldiers from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars seen by VA hospitals are suffering from mental health disorders or psychosocial behavioral problems.

Data was collected on 289,328 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who sought health care at VA medical centers from 2002 to 2008.

106,726 of the returning veterans received mental health care. That's approximately 37 percent. 62,929 vets were diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD) and 50,432 were diagnosed with depression.

"When the definition is expanded to include diagnoses of mental health disorders or psychosocial behavioral problems such as homelessness, or both, 43 percent of these veterans received these diagnoses" said lead researcher Dr. Karen Seal.

Findings from the study
1. 22% of veterans were diagnosed with PTSD
2. 17% of veterans were diagnosed with depression
3. 7% of veterans were diagnosed with alcohol use disorder
4. 3% of veterans were diagnosed with drug use disorder
5. 29% of veterans with mental health problems were diagnosed with 2 of the above disorders
6. 33% of veterans with mental health problems were diagnosed with 3 of the above disorders
7. Most mental health diagnoses were not made in the first year that a veteran entered the VA health-care system, but several years after.


Mark Kaplan, a professor of community health at the School of Community Health at Portland State University in Oregon, noted that the study only covers vets who have received care at the VA, but there are many more with serious mental health problems that are either seeking care privately or not at all, he said.



(Source: MedlinePlus)

Relaxation of income requirements will yield coverage for more veterans

Recently, the Veteran's Administration announced some veteran's considered Priority Group 8 (High Income) may be now eligible for benefits beginning June 2009. According to VA.gov, "These Veterans would qualify if their household income does not exceed the current VA income thresholds (means test threshold and/or geographic means test threshold) by more than 10%."

This comes 6 years after the enrollment of priority group 8 veterans was stopped in 2003. The VA has supplied a calculator to determine if you are within the new guidelines.

Specific information about coverage, though not updated with this recent change, can be found at VA Benefits .

For the facility closest to you choose VA Outpatient Clinics or VA Hospitals

Obama's Address: Expanded Health Care for Veterans

In Obama's address to Congress tonight, he spoke of raising pay, and expanding health care and benefits to our veterans.

Watch the video: